∑Fundamental attribution error:† the tendency to explain others' actions in
terms of dispositional (internal) rather than situational (external) causes.

∑Actor-observer
effect:† the tendency to attribute our
own behavior to situational causes but that of others to internal ones.

∑Self-serving
bias:† the tendency to take credit for
positive behaviors but to blame negative ones on external causes.

∑Selective
perception:† people selectively
interpret what they see based on their interests, background, experience, and
attitudes.

∑Projection:† attributing one's own characteristics to
other people.

∑Stereotyping:† judging someone on the basis of one's
perception of the group to which that person belongs

∑Halo
effect:† drawing a general impression
about an individual based on a single characteristic.

∑Self-fulfilling
prophecy:† a two-phase process

(1) an individual defines a situation
incorrectly;

(2)
her
subsequent actions (prompted by the definition) cause the originally incorrect
conception to become reality

IV.††††††† Individual Decision Making

††††††† A.††††††† Decision making models

††††††† † 1)††††††† The
optimizing model

††††††† Assumptions:
rationality

††††††† ††††††† People are rational, goal-oriented; they
have clear ††††††† and constant
preferences;† all options are known, and
final choice will maximize the outcome

††††††† 6
steps:††††††† Ascertain the need for a
decision

††††††††††††††† ††††††† Identify the decision criteria

††††††††††††††† ††††††† Allocate weights to the criteria

††††††††††††††† ††††††† Develop the alternatives

††††††††††††††† ††††††† Evaluate the alternatives

††††††††††††††† ††††††† Select the best alternative

††††††† † 2)††††††† The
satisficing model

††††††† Assumption:† bounded rationality

††††††† ††††††† People make decisions by constructing
simplified ††††††† models that extract the
essential features from problems ††††††† without
capturing all their complexity.

B.† Heuristics and biases in decision making

††††††† (Kahnman
& Tversky, 1970s--)

†
1)††††††† Representativeness
heuristic:† the more similar an ††††††† ††††††† individual
is to a typical members of a given group, †††† ††††††† the more likely he or she is to belong
to that group.† ††† ††††††† Generally, it refers
to the phenomenon that † ††††††† probabilities are evaluated by the
degree to which A † ††††††† is the representative of B, i.e., by the
degree to ††††††† ††††††† which A resembles B.

†
2)††††††† Availability:† a judgmental heuristic in which people ††† ††††††† assess
the frequency of a class or the probability of an ††††††† event by the ease with which instances or occurrences can ††††††† be brought to mind.

†
3)††††††† Anchoring:† different starting points yield different ††††††† estimates,
which are biased toward the initial value.†
††† ††††††† It occurs when (a) there is a reference point or (b)† ††††††† estimate is based on the result of some
incomplete †††† ††††††† computation.

4)Framing:† the way questions are framed influences decisions

5)Nonrational
escalation of commitment: refers to the tendency to bias decisions by oneís
past actions, particularly after receiving negative feedback about such
actions.